


At Full Brightness

by highly_caffeinated



Series: Lovely [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Remus Lupin, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Eventual Fluff, Everyone Is Alive, F/M, Gay Sirius Black, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Mental Health Issues, Mentions of Eating Disorder, Sirius Black & James Potter Friendship, Sirius and Remus are good parents, but also a lot of fluff, remus is a sass master, sirius is dramatic as usual, there will be angst, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-13 01:37:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21486196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highly_caffeinated/pseuds/highly_caffeinated
Summary: Things rarely ever turn out exactly the way you imagined.If you would have asked Sirius Black if he ever thought he’d have a kid, he would’ve probably laughed and called you crazy. He never thought of himself as someone who would have kids. It’s not that he didn’t like them, it’s that he was always worried that he would somehow screw everything up. Also, if he were being honest with himself, he used to think that he wouldn’t live long enough to get the chance to be a parent.But, like they say…things rarely turn out the way you imagine. That isn’t always a bad thing, though.*recommend reading You Make Me Lovely first, but it's not necessary to understand this story*
Relationships: Harry Potter & Original Female Character(s), James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & James Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, wolfstar- relationship
Series: Lovely [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1548706
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

Things rarely ever turn out exactly the way you imagined.

If you would have asked Sirius if he ever thought he’d have a kid, he would’ve probably laughed and called you crazy. He never thought of himself as someone who would have kids. It’s not that he didn’t like them, it’s that he was always worried that he would be a bad parent because of everything that’s happened. Also, if he were being honest with himself, he used to think that he wouldn’t live long enough to get the chance to be a parent.

But, like they say…things rarely turn out the way you imagine. That isn’t always a bad thing, though.

Twelve years ago, Sirius hadn’t expected his life to amount to much. He was lost, full of self-hatred, drifting aimlessly, and living on borrowed time. His eating disorder held him captive through his teenage years and threatened to do the same to his twenties.

He fought hard to get his life back, though. He worked on his recovery, finished university, went through graduate school, married his best friend, and started working as a counselor. He was happy. He and Remus loved each other and were both living fairly fulfilling lives. Remus got a job teaching English at the local high school and he loved every minute of it. He was happy.

But there was one thing that was constantly sitting at the back of both of their minds: being parents. Having kids had always been sort of a hot topic between he and Remus. Sirius knew that Remus wanted kids, and he guessed that, deep down, he did too, but he didn’t want to screw things up. He wanted to be sure that he was in a good enough place mentally to be a parent. The two of them went back and forth about it for a while, before finally deciding that they would look into adoption.

And five years ago, he and Remus adopted a seven-year-old girl named Mara, and all of Sirius’ worries about being a father went away (okay, so maybe not all of them because, really, it’s Sirius. But a lot of his worries). They both fell in love with her, and she quickly took to them as well. They were a family. Not long after Mara came to live with them, they brought her over to meet James, Lily, and Harry. Mara and Harry quickly became best friends, something that made both James and Sirius really happy. Everything was turning out perfect for them. 

_If only they knew that things usually don't turn out the way you expect. _

****

“Dad.”

Sirius was brought out of his reverie by the sound of his daughter’s voice. That, and the fact that she was poking him in the arm repeatedly, trying to get his attention. He sighed but didn’t turn away from his computer. “What is it, Mar?”

“When is dad gonna be home?”

“The school day doesn’t end until after 3, so not until later.”

“Why aren’t you at work then?”

“The same reason you’re not at school. I have the day off.” The girl just stared at him. “Why aren’t you with Harry?”

“He’s in the bathroom and I got bored waiting for him.” Sirius sighed, running a hand through his hair and going back to his work. He only had a few moments of peace, though, before he was being poked again.

“What, Mara?”

“Do you know if he’s coming home right after work?”

“I’m not sure. Why?”

“Harry and I need help with our English project.”

“You know, I could help you guys with it if you want.” Mara shook her head.

“That’s okay, we’ll just wait until later.” And with that, she ran back into the living room. Sirius was just about to go back to doing his work when the phone rang. Seeing that it was Remus, he smiled to himself.

“Hey you,” he said, picking up the phone. “What’s up?”

“What kind of cheese should I get?” Remus asked, getting right to the point. “I figured we would make soup and grilled cheese for dinner.”

“That sounds fine. Aren’t you at work, though?”

“Yeah. But the kids are at lunch right now, so I have a break. Now, what kind of cheese do you want?”

“I don’t know. Do you want me to go to the store and see what kinds there are?”

“Actually, I need to go to the bank on my way home, so I’ll just stop.” 

“Are you sure? I’m home all day, so I don’t mind going.”

“Nah, the store is right next door to the bank so it’s not even out of the way. I have a few other things I need to get anyway.”

“Oh, before I forget, since you’re going to the store, can you pick up more syrup? Harry and Mara used the rest of it when they had pancakes this morning and I promised that we would buy more.”

“Did you—”

“Yes, I ate some too. I have to admit, though, I think I’m more of a waffle person.” Sirius put the phone down as he heard his name being called. “Shit, Rem, Harry’s calling for me, so I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you later?”

“Yeah. I’ll call you once school gets done. Love you.”

“Love you too.” Sirius hung up the phone and went to the living room to see what was wrong. As soon as he entered the wrong, Harry started talking.

“Do you have any, like, good drawing paper that we could use?”

“What for?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Our project. We need to draw illustrations for the short story we’re writing.”

“Harry, we’re not ready to do illustrations yet! We haven’t even written the story,” Mara cut in, looking between her dad and her best friend. “We don’t need it yet.”

“Are you sure?” Sirius asked. She just nodded in response. “Okay then. If you need anything, I’ll be in the kitchen.” He went back to his computer, pulling out a piece of paper and calling the number written on it.

**

Sirius was finishing up talking on the phone when Remus walked in with the groceries later that day. He walked over to him, wrapping his arms around him and kissing him lightly on the head. “Hey. How was your day?”

“It was good,” Remus replied. “What did you do today?” Remus started putting the groceries away, handing things to Sirius as soon as he got close. 

“Oh, you know… paperwork, made pancakes, talked on the phone, nothing really interesting.”

“Who were you talking to when I came in?” Remus asked, taking food out of one of the bags and handing it to Sirius to put away.

“Dr. Riley.” Remus dropped what he was holding, looking at his husband with wide eyes.

“What?” Sirius just stared at him. “But I thought—and you said earlier—"

“It’s not for me, Rem. I referred one of my clients to him.” Remus sighed in relief. “I told him that we should get together one of these days. Maybe have him and his wife over for dinner.”

“That sounds nice.”

“I thought so. Hey, do you mind asking Harry if he’s staying for dinner while I start getting things ready?” Remus nodded, leaving the room and reappearing a few moments later.

“He said yeah.” He walked over to where Sirius was standing, starting dinner. “You know, I think past-you would have burst into flames if he saw you cooking.”

“What?”

“Just the thought of having to either cook or eat made you want to be sick and—”

“Yeah, yeah. I know, I was an absolute train wreck,” he muttered not looking at his husband.

“What was a train wreck?” Mara asked suddenly as she and Harry entered the kitchen. Remus rose an eyebrow before realizing that the two of them must have only heard the end of what Sirius just said.

“Nothing,” Sirius squeaked, face turning red. Remus groaned quietly, face-palming. _This was not going to be easy. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the first chapter of the sequel to You Make Me Lovely!  
So this story takes place a little bit far in the future from the last story. It's happening during present day, which puts the first book happening roughly around 2007 (I realized that I never explicitly stated when it took place). As of right now, this series is probably going to be 3 or 4 books.  
Anyway, I really hope you all like the beginning, and feel free to let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

“Do you ever feel like we’re in over our heads?” Sirius asked as he watched Remus get ready for bed. He had been reading in bed when Remus came into the room and decided to ask the question that had been on his mind for a while.

“About what?” Remus replied, sitting next to Sirius in the bed.

“About being parents. Like, do you ever get worried that you’ll screw things up somehow?” Before Remus had the chance to answer, there was a knock on their bedroom door. To be honest, he was kind of glad for the interruption because he really didn’t know what to say to Sirius’ question. He’d be lying if he said he was never worried, but he didn’t think that was necessarily what Sirius was talking about. Remus had always had a feeling that Sirius was scared to have kids because he was worried that he would turn out like his own parents. Remus himself found that to be kind of ridiculous, as Sirius would never treat someone the way his own parents treated him. But, nevertheless, that fear was present in his husband, no matter how ridiculous it was.

“What are you guys doing?” Mara asked as she walked in.

“Just talking,” Remus said. The girl nodded and then proceeded to jump onto the bed and sit in between them. “Please, join us on the bed,” he said sarcastically.

“You’re both kind of odd,” she started, grabbing hold of Remus’ hand and leaning her head on Sirius’ shoulder. “I like it.”

“We’re odd?” Sirius asked, chuckling lightly. He didn’t know whether his daughter was joking or if he should be slightly offended.

“Yeah. You’re both so confident about things. I don’t know anyone else who’s like that. It makes me feel like I can be who I truly am. I hope I’m like you guys when I get older.” Remus was touched, and when he looked over at Sirius, he saw that he was tearing up.

“Sirius, are you crying?” he asked, and Mara turned to look at him as well. Sirius sniffled a little bit and wiped his eyes.

“It’s just so sweet. We love you Mar.”

“Love you too.” She paused for a moment before moving to face both of them and deciding to continue. “There is something I wanted to talk to you about, though.”

“Really?” Remus asked. The girl nodded. “What is it?”

“I think we should get a pet.” Remus rose an eyebrow and glanced at Sirius.

“A pet?”

“Yeah. There are a few shelters around town and some of them even have puppies.”

“We’ve already got your father, though. He’s basically like a human puppy.”

“I’m _what_?” he said, swatting at Remus’ arm.

“You’re kind of like a puppy. It’s cute.”

“_Cute_,” Sirius scoffed, shaking his head. “Mara, why don’t you head back to bed and we’ll see you in the morning.” She quickly nodded and jumped off the bed, scurrying out of the room. “Night Rem.”

“Are you seriously mad?” Sirius sighed and turned to face his husband.

“I’m not mad, just tired. Okay?” He kissed Remus lightly and turned to face the other way again.

“Night.”

****

“What do you want, James?” Sirius asked, running a hand through his hair.

**“Okay, so before you freak out—”**

“Freak out? What happened?”

**“It’s not that bad.”**

“James, what the fuck is going on? What are you talking about?”

**“I’m at the hospital with Mara—” **James heard something hit the ground followed by a muffled ‘shit’, which he assumed was Sirius dropping his phone on the floor.

“I’ll be right there,” Sirius said before hanging up and grabbing the keys to his car. He rushed in as soon as he got to the hospital, spotting James immediately.

“Hey,” James said as soon as he saw Sirius.

“What happened?”

“She’s with the doctor right now, but she hit her head and it was bleeding so I brought her here.”

“Shit,” Sirius said, running both of his hands through his hair.

“Mr. Black?” Sirius turned around at the sound of one of the nurses calling his name. “If you’d like, you can come see your daughter.” Sirius nodded quickly and followed the nurse down the hall, James close behind. He thanked the nurse when they got to the room and headed inside.

“Hey kid,” he said, sitting on the hospital bed next to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“Hi dad.”

“So, you wanna tell me what happened?” He gently turned her head toward him and examined the stitches near her left eye. She shook her head no. “How are you feeling?” She touched the side of her head, wincing slightly at the pain.

“My head hurts.”

“Okay, well, I’m gonna go call Remus and let him know what’s happening and I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.” With that, Sirius went back out into the waiting area to call Remus. It only rang twice before he heard his husband on the other end.”

“Hey, what’s up?” Remus asked.

“Are you busy?”

“No, I’m just getting out of a meeting. Why?”

“I’m at the hospital with Mara. She got hurt.”

“What? What happened? Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’s gonna be okay. She hurt her head and had to get stitches, but otherwise she’s all in one piece.”

“Okay, well, if I leave work now I should be there in like 25 minutes.”

“Actually, the doctor is here to talk to me so you can just head home and we’ll meet you there.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“See you soon.” And with that, Remus hung up the phone and got in his car to drive home. Sirius followed the doctor back to the room, where he started talking.

“She has a mild concussion and we stitched up the cut on her face. If you’d like, you can bring her home. Just make sure she doesn’t use electronics for at least a week if you can, and if things get any worse feel free to bring her back in.”

“Okay, thank you” The man nodded before leaving the room. “Ready to head home?”

“Yeah.” Sirius wrapped an arm around her as they made their way to the car. “Is dad just meeting us at home?” Sirius nodded.

“When we talked I told him that we were gonna be leaving soon, so it would just be easier to meet him at home.” Thankfully it didn’t take the two of them long to get home, and within fifteen minutes they were pulling into the driveway. As soon as they walked in the door, Remus rushed over to them.

“Oh god, Mar,” he said, moving her hair away from her face so he could see the stitched-up cut on her face.

“The doctor said it’ll probably scar once it starts healing,” she said. “And I have a concussion.”

“Well, is there anything you need? There’s food in the kitchen if you’re hungry.” She just shook her head.

“I don’t really feel like eating. I might just go upstairs to my room if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Sirius replied. “Just let us know if you want anything.”

“I will.” And with that, Mara retreated to her room, closing the door gently behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 2. I hope you all like it. Feel free to let me know what you think of the chapter in the comments :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> life is hard. i tried

“It’s not working!”

Sirius raised an eyebrow as he heard his daughter’s voice from down the hallway. He sighed loudly before running a hand through his hair and deciding that he should probably go see what was wrong. “What are you doing?” Sirius asked as he watched his daughter sit on the sink in her bathroom. For a few seconds she didn’t respond and Sirius wondered if she was ignoring him. After a few more seconds, though, she turned her eyes so that she could see him in the mirror. This, however, meant that Sirius could also see her, and he had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing when he saw her face. “Oh, kid,” he said softly, turning her face towards him so that he could get a better look.

“I can’t cover it up,” she groaned, pointing with her makeup brush at the deep purple bruise that surrounded the stitches on her face. “It looks hideous.” Sirius chuckled lightly to himself before helping Mara down from the sink and taking her hand in his.

“Come here,” he said, wrapping an arm around her and leading her back down the hallway toward his and Remus’ bedroom. As soon as they entered the bedroom he got to work.

As he helped his daughter fix her makeup, Sirius thought back to all the times when he found himself in a similar situation, desperately trying to cover up bruises with makeup so that no one would find out about the abuse. He shuddered at the memory. “You okay, Dad?” Mara asked when she noticed that Sirius’ eyes were glazed over. When he didn’t answer, she poked his arm a few times to try and get his attention. “Dad,” she said again and he shook his head, looking at her in confusion.

“What?”

“I asked if you were okay,” she said, a worried look taking over her features. Sirius rose an eyebrow before nodding quickly.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“It’s just… You were zoned out for a little bit and your eyes got this weird glazed over look on them.”

“Oh, no. I was just thinking about something, Mar," he said with a wave of his hand. "Why are you even worried about putting makeup on?” he asked as he put the brush back in her bag. She rose an eyebrow at him. “It’s Saturday,” he finished. She shrugged.

“If I can’t see it, then maybe I can pretend it’s not there.” Sirius stared at her. “How’d you get so good at this?” she asked as she examined her face in the mirror. If it weren’t for the stitches, you wouldn’t even know there had ever been a bruise to begin with. It was impressive, to say the least.

“Oh, you know… Always have to make sure I look pretty,” he lied, smiling tightly and walking out into the living room. Knowing that he couldn’t lie to his daughter forever and not wanting to get into it, he got ready to quickly change the subject. Mara seemed to be satisfied by his answer, though, because she started talking again.

“Are you doing anything today?” she asked. Sirius rose an eyebrow.

“No. Why?”

“Oh, well… I was thinking that maybe we could—I don’t know—hang out,” she shrugged. Sirius’ face immediately lit up.

“Really?” She nodded.

“Yeah. I feel like we don’t ever really do much together.”

“Well, we can definitely do something then,” he said, his face breaking out in a big smile. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t excited. Sirius had always been worried that, despite his best efforts, his daughter never liked him as much as she liked Remus. And he hated himself for thinking that. He just couldn’t help it, though.

She smiled back at him. “Great,” she said, taking a seat next to him on the sofa. She looked like she wanted to continue, so Sirius kept quiet. “I do love you, you know,” she started, turning to look at Sirius. He just stared at her. “I know sometimes you feel like I like dad more than you… But I don’t.” She leaned her head on his shoulder, just like she did that day at the hospital. “I love both of you the exact same,” she continued as she moved to sit up straight, “Even though you both said ‘no’ to adopting a dog.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this wasn't a complete train wreck. I know it's shorter than usual, but I had it written already so. Updates will continue to be super slow as I try to pull my life out of the gutter, so I apologize. As always, feel free to let me know what you think and I appreciate everyone who has stuck with this series since the beginning.


End file.
